BERLIN (Reuters) - A pair of flying underpants caused a crash on a German highway when they landed on a driver's face and blocked his view, police said Tuesday.

A police spokesman in the central town of Gotha said one of a group of naked men in a van threw the underwear into a Volkswagen Passat as they passed it on a busy stretch of one of Germany's notoriously speedy autobahns.

"The underpants landed on the driver's face, causing him to ram the truck ahead from behind," said the spokesman, adding that he did not know why the men were driving along naked.

No one was hurt in the crash, but police are hunting the owner of the underpants for failing to stop at the scene.

Update: Dwight Meredith has some issues with the reporting here. It's a classic decontruction of lousy reporting, and funny too.